FLOATING CLASSROOM; CSUN FISHERY-SCIENCE PROGRAM NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Outdoors Editor

``Mmm, samples that you can eat.''

That was Northridge's Brian Buaas' opinion of the yellowtail he planned to consume after removing a portion of its gill for DNA testing. ``Mother Nature at her best,'' he said.

In the serious business of marine biology, there is room for levity. With such long hours at sea, it's a prerequisite.

``It gets a little grueling,'' said Larry G. Allen of Calabasas, a Cal State Northridge biology professor and director of the university's Nearshore Marine Fish Research Program. ``It can take us up to six hours to go through the nets. You have to have a little humor, a little frivolity.''

The graduate students aboard the Yellowfin - a state-funded ocean research vessel - look at the species caught by the nets as part of the training in the master's program in marine biology. The monotonous task is occasionally broken up with a lobster-on-the-hat trick or two; days end with jokes, storytelling and games of cribbage.

But the long-term goal of the Nearshore Marine Fish Research Program is much loftier. Its data should assist in more effective management of the nearshore fish resources, which impact commercial harvesting and sport-fishing.

Last week near Santa Catalina Island's West End, Allen oversaw his researchers fetching eight nets stationed just offshore.

``We got a crippled boat and two nets to go,'' Yellowfin mate Paul Skaar radioed from one of three skiffs.

``We got three seabass, too,'' Allen replied.

More critical than the boat's malfunctions on this trip were the white seabass, for it was the slender, silvery fish Allen was most interested in.

``We add them to the data base; we measure them, weigh them,'' he said. ``We'll probably pull the otoliths - the ear bones - to help us age them; they have annual growth rings like a tree.

``It all goes into the grid we have plotted (at several locations) from Point Conception all the way down to San Diego. And over the course of the years, we can look at the patterns of distribution and abundance of these juveniles and see how strong the populations are and how strong the recruitment is of babies every year.''

The other target species in the program are calico bass, sand bass, spotted bay bass, black sea bass, yellowtail and California halibut.

Allen and his CSUN graduate students collaborate with UC Santa Barbara and Occidental College students and scientists in Mexico to research the fishes' age and growth characteristics, reproduction, population genetics, food habits, distribution, abundance and dispersal. Research funding has come from various sources, including state, federal and private entities.

``With that money, we can continue to do significant research and I can fund students to help. They come out and provide most of the labor and learn in the process,'' Allen said.

Call it a floating classroom.

For details on the Nearshore Marine Fish Research Program, visit its Web site at www.csun.edu/(tilde)nmfrp.

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4 Photos

PHOTO (1--4--Color--Clockwise from bottom) One of the primary goals of the Cal State Northridge Nearshore Marine Fish Research Program is to learn more about the white seabass, pictured here being weighed as CSUN graduate student Amy McClean of Chatsworth collects data. Paul Skaar, left, the mate aboard the research vessel Yellowfin, encourages CSUN graduate student Brian Buaas of Northridge as he hauls in a bounty of yellowfin croaker. Turns out that California spiny lobsters make attractive hat and glove decorations, as modeled by Eagle Rock's Matt Craig, an Occidental College student pursuing a master's degree in marine biology. Researchers retrieve sampling nets stationed near Santa Catalina Island's West End as the research vessel Yellowfin awaits their return.

Photos by Brett Pauly/Daily News